KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Malaysia will remain a free market for telecommunications companies in the rollout of its second 5G network, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil told newswire Bloomberg in an interview published today.

He said Malaysian telcos are free to decide whether or not to work with Chinese equipment makers like Huawei Technologies Co despite security risk warnings from the European Union (EU) and the US.

"The government itself is not entering into any contractual obligations with any of these network equipment providers. It’s a commercial decision, and ‘the ones who need to be convinced are the telecommunication companies, the mobile network operators’,” he was quoted as saying.

He said that the government will take into consideration concerns voiced by some Western countries over Huawei’s possible participation in the network.

It was previously reported that US and EU had warned Malaysia about risks to national security and foreign investment should Huawei win its bid for the country’s 5G contract, in its second rollout of a 5G network.

The Anwar government has also repeatedly said the contracts to build the second network will be awarded through an open tender process.

The government is also looking to regulate the quality of services provided by existing mobile service networks and is expecting to bring the proposals to Parliament by mid-2024.

"It’s not about just coverage, it’s about how consistently you get good coverage,” Fahmi told Bloomberg.

He added that the current area coverage under the 4G network is nearly 97 per cent in Malaysia.

Other proposed amendments may also address weaknesses in "ensuring regulatory compliance” from social media platforms, particularly in matters of hate speech on race and religion and seditious content which was prevalent around the 15th general election last year.

Fahmi said the Anwar government is taking steps to prevent such content from spreading on social media ahead of elections in six states this year.

He said his ministry is engaging with social media platforms like Twitter, Telegram, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram on the matter.

"So far I can say that TikTok, Meta have been very cooperative in terms of engaging with the MCMC,” Fahmi was quoted as saying, referring to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

"And we hope to continue with the good working relationship with most of these social media platforms,” he added.